


even a live dog is better off

by Anonymous



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Animal Transformation, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Matt Murdock Needs a Hug, Not actually a fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-05 14:53:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5379257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In response to <a href="http://daredevilkink.dreamwidth.org/6237.html?thread=11267421#cmt11267421">this prompt</a>:</p><blockquote>
  <p>C'mon, we've had Matt turned into a tiny, spastic blind kitten who tries to kick all the ass while the size of a bar of soap. I want to see Foggy get roped into this bullshit. Magic, science, whatever, Foggy gets turned into a small, chubby, adorable little puppy and Matt has to take care of him until he goes back to normal.</p>
</blockquote>This completely fills it!  ...except that Foggy doesn't get turned into a puppy.  And it's not really about Matt taking care of him (although, strictly speaking, that's there).  So it doesn't really fill it at all.
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anonymousdaredevils](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonymousdaredevils/gifts).
  * Inspired by [matt murdock is a kitten (because reasons)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3804910) by [kay_cricketed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_cricketed/pseuds/kay_cricketed). 



> Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion! (Ecclesiastes 9:4)

Matt missed Foggy, couldn't wait for him to come back.

...I mean, obviously, Foggy was _there_ , wagging his tail whenever Matt said it was meal time or dragging him to the park (and Matt had thought Foggy could get a little enthusiastic _before_ ) or whining when Matt shut the door so that Foggy couldn't follow when Daredevil was needed. Apparently, being turned into a dog unlocked Foggy's secret ninja levels, because no matter how firm Matt tried to be about it, he would inevitably wake up in the morning to discover that he had once again been joined in bed by a large warm body with horrible breath, who was eager for Matt to get up and take him for a walk and go to work to see Karen who would give him ear scritches...

So, yeah, Matt missed Foggy as a human. He missed his wisecracks and his horrible singing, he missed the fellow sharp mind doing its best for the people of Hell's Kitchen, he definitely missed the way Foggy could reach out and make almost everybody his friend. Well, not that doggy Foggy (Ack! Karen had gotten him saying it now!) didn't do that in his own way, but it just wasn't the same.

He missed the roommate who had insisted on doing his own descriptive audio so that Matt didn't have to miss such classics as _Snakes on a Plane_. He missed the guy who let him feel safe enough to get drunk enough to risk getting the spins. He missed the way Foggy would automatically narrate the nonverbal communications of those around him, inviting them into a little of what Matt's world was like by sharing theirs with him.

Matt missed those things, and told himself fiercely that he wanted Foggy back as a human. He told himself that he spent long hours snuggled up with his best-friend-in-dog-form on the couch for Foggy's comfort, and ignored the fact that this was closer than they'd been in a long time, that some of those things he missed he had been missing since long before Foggy's transformation. He told himself that he was still doing everything he could to find someone who could fix what had happened, despite the temptation to stop trying, to just let Foggy stay in a form that felt and showed affection for Matt so openly and whole-heartedly.

 _Foggy deserves better,_ he reminded himself. That, at least, had stayed a familiar truth since the beginning of their friendship. Foggy deserved better. Besides, he missed him.


	2. better to be a human being

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> > It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, is of a different opinion, it is only because they only know their own side of the question.
> 
> (John Stuart Mill, _Utilitarianism_ ) 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, you can blame this chapter on [QuestionableSanity](http://archiveofourown.org/users/QuestionableSanity/pseuds/QuestionableSanity).

Matt hated all of this mystical claptrap. Still, a friend of a friend had come through for him, he now owed some new favors he dreaded coming due, and Foggy was, well, Foggy again. This was a good thing, even if he had gotten used to the almost constant presence of a large, warm, fuzzy body with no regard for personal hygiene or personal space. 

_Huh_ , Matt realized, _maybe Foggy is right. Maybe I should look into getting a dog._ He had always known that that advice had more to do with Foggy's desire for a pet than any perceived need of Matt's for a guide dog, even back when Foggy believed that Matt's bruises and cuts came from clumsiness. Now, he was finally beginning to understand the appeal of a companion who was dimwitted and defenseless enough to stick around and provide affection, even if it did require a lot of care. And this whole ordeal had confirmed that both his apartment and the office were pet friendly. _Maybe I will get one some day, and split duties with Foggy,_ Matt thought. _See, there's an upside to Foggy being human again._ Besides, of course, the upside of Foggy _being human again_. This was a good thing, he reminded himself. Again.

Remembering this was made harder by the way he kept trying to find Foggy as he walked home, to make sure that the leash was taut enough to pull him back from trouble while not being so short that Foggy couldn't enjoy himself. He would have to change his habits again, he thought, switching his focus back to his cane. Habits were dangerous things in the first place; he was sure Stick would agree.

He wasn't the only one who'd formed bad habits, Matt realized as he approached his apartment. For the first time since he'd stormed away, so angry with Matt, Foggy in human form was waiting at his door. Matt wondered if Foggy knew why his feet had led him there at this time of day, how much of his time as a dog he'd retained. _Probably more than he did the other way around._

"Hey, Foggy, what brings you here?" he asked, just in case Foggy had some other reason for visiting. _Wait, even if it is just habit, wouldn't he have just headed back home when he realized where he was going?_ he thought. True, Foggy might have still been confused by the after-effects of the transformation back to human--it wasn't the full twelve hours he was supposed to have rested quite yet--but he'd been coherent enough to make it all the way here fully dressed, even down to his shoes.

"What, I'm no longer welcome?" Foggy asked, with a bit more sincerity to the question than Matt liked.

"No, no, of course not. Come in!" Matt insisted. He hadn't realized that Foggy's avoidance of his home might have anything more to it than a desire to stay away from the place where Matt Murdock became the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, making it clear which parts of Matt's life he was willing to interact with. Now he realized that Foggy hadn't been properly invited over since before they'd begun Nelson and Murdock. And the only time he'd visited uninvited had been... yeah. "Watch out, though," he belatedly warned Foggy as he closed the door, "everything's covered in dog hair. Some mutt was hanging around here for _days_."

Foggy objected. "I have been reliably informed that you were visited by an excellent, healthy specimen of a purebred golden retriever," he informed Matt haughtily, "with the kind of luscious locks that would make it a shoe-in for first place in any dog show in the nation, even without a pedigree."

Matt laughed. "You want a beer?" he asked.

"No," Foggy answered, "I don't think alcohol will help. I almost chased a pigeon on the way over here, Matt."

See? Matt had been right to worry about that! "Then what do you--" he said, and was tackled mid-sentence by Foggy, who had apparently not lost that extra level in ninja. He hadn't expected that at all. But he somehow didn't mind when he found himself tucked up against the warm bulk of his best friend on the couch, so like and yet so different from how he had marked the twilight hour between attorney and vigilante for the last few weeks. For one thing, Foggy's head and upper body weren't laying across his lap, ready both to receive attention and to attempt to prevent him getting up and wandering out into the dangerous night. For another, Foggy was talking, instead of listening patiently. Turn-about was fair play, Matt thought: his turn to listen.

"What I _want_ ," said Foggy, "is to ride out the last of this weirdness here. I swear, I chewed through my comforter at home. I'm going to have to save up for a new one before I can have anyone over."

"Fair enough," Matt said. "I'd pick the canine instincts that don't involve public embarrassment or the destruction of property, too. You've only got, what, forty-five minutes or so until it's supposed to be completely over? I can survive stuck here that long."

"Matt," Foggy said, "I give you fair warning. I can remember everything you've told me, this last week. Or at least the parts I've been awake for." Oh. That was... Why would Foggy come back, then? If he knew how clingy Matt secretly was sometimes, how much he had enjoyed the momentary, undeserved, whole-hearted affection of his friend? "But the reason I am here is that there is no part of me, man or hopefully rapidly disappearing dog, that has any problems at all hanging out on the couch with you for as long as I can get away with." Foggy capped that statement with a long, full hug, and Matt didn't even try to resist the urge to cling. When they finally separated, Foggy scooted down to the arm of the couch so that he could face Matt. "Now, tell me what's been going on at the office lately."

"I thought you remembered what you'd heard?" Matt pointed out.

"Not through Karen's ear scritches!" Foggy complained. "Those things were like magic, I swear. Your head stroking was nice, but man, Karen's ear scritches were something else. I think that's the part I'm going to miss most. Plus, you and she spent an entire meeting speaking in Spanish. So, come on, tell me, why were the Lopezes there?"

Matt indulged him, going over the broad outlines of their latest case and telling him the progress that had been made. He wasn't surprised when Foggy fell asleep; he was still recovering from everything, after all, although it was mildly amusing that his head ended up in Matt's lap again. He found himself stroking his friend's hair one last time, reciting a prayer of thanks as he did so.

...That seemed about right. Matt hated mystical claptrap, it was true, but he had absolutely nothing against miracles. He felt like today he had been granted one.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, so lovely prompter prompted lovely prompt and got this in response. Someone should do a proper fill for lovely prompter!


End file.
